


Jurisdiction

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [120]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Episode: s03e14 Ship of Tears, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Cops, Psi Corps, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 21:44:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14702955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: When can Psi Cops get involved?The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	Jurisdiction

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

It's come to my attention that my readers may not know about MetaPol's jurisdiction and its limits, so decided to clear this up.

The types of cases the Corps can get involved in are _very_ limited.

When does the Corps get involved?

  * Normals commit crimes against telepaths. Assault, murder, trafficking, rape... when normals hurt telepaths, the Corps has jurisdiction.
  * Telepaths commit crimes against normals or against other telepaths.
  * Rogue telepaths. Psi Cops have the responsibility to apprehend rogue telepaths, and where applicable, to stop them from committing crimes against normals or against other telepaths.



In each of these cases, the normal police and other authorities may assist, but jurisdiction remains with the Corps.

When does the Corps not have jurisiction?

  * Normal on normal crime, with no telepaths involved. The Corps cannot get involved.
  * Aliens. While the Corps may get involved if an alien commits a crime against a telepath _within Earth Alliance jurisdiction_ , the Corps has no jurisdiction to intervene if aliens commit crimes against telepaths in alien space. (This comes in later, because it's why Bester couldn't intercept the aliens carrying telepaths to the Rim. He had no choice but to go to the station and ask for help, even risking his own life to do so, because the alien smugglers were out of his jurisdiction.)



The only time the Corps could ever be involved in a case involving normal-on-normal crime is if someone's dying and a telepath is called in to do a deathbed scan. And most of those telepaths aren't Psi Cops.

Psi Cops are almost never involved in cases that don't involve telepaths, and this is a good thing, because they are desperately needed on cases involving telepaths. There aren't a lot of P12s to start off, and not all P12s are Psi Cops. So any responsibilities that would take them away from these cases would cause harm to telepaths.


End file.
